Students Movement in Pakistan
By Dr S.Akhtar Ehtisham and Dr S.M. Taqi
US
At the end of 1948 a few progressive students founded a small group in Lahore called Democratic Students Federation (DSF). DSF participated in Union elections in different colleges. Prominent among its leaders were Abid Manto in Rawalpindi and Zuhair Naqvi in Lahore . In Karachi DSF was formed first in the Dow Medical College in 1950. Islami Jamiat e Talaba, the student wing of Jamaat e Islami formed in 1948, confined itself to proselytization and convened small gatherings in mosques.
Struggle of Bengali Students
Students in undivided Bengal were, if any thing, even more militant in the struggle for freedom than their counter parts in the rest of the country. Jinnah had declared Urdu the only official language of Pakistan. They could not accept that.
Dhaka University students led the language campaign. On February 22,1952 police opened fire on a group of Dhaka Medical College students. Twenty-five students were killed and many more injured. Such a storm of protest, indignation and condemnation followed that the government surrendered and accepted the legitimate demand of Bengali as a state language
Students’ Movement in Pukhtunkhwa
The politicization of the younger generation of Pashtuns started simultaneously with the anti-imperial struggle of Badshah Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgars. Pashtun Zalmay or Young Pashtuns was the organization’s youth wing which focused on the traditional countryside base of the movement.
Led by Wali Khan, under the aegis of the National Awami Party (NAP), the Pashtun youth movement came to the university campuses. Progressive leaders like Lateef Afridi, Afrasiab Khattak, the late Sarfaraz Mehmood and Mukhtar Baacha et al. came of age during the anti-Ayub protests. This era also saw the ushering-in of the Pashtun nationalist politics into the university campuses.
By early 1970s, the Pashtun Students Federation (PkSF) had a formidable presence in the Peshawar University. One of best-known students’ student leaders, Afrasiab Khattak of PkSF went on to lead the leftist movement in Pukhtunkhwa. He was implicated in the notorious Malakand and Hyderabad conspiracy cases. Lateef Afridi incidentally appeared as the defense lawyer in the Malakand case.
Upon the imposition of Zia ul Haq’s martial law, Afrasiab Khattak was arrested and spent a year in prison. He is said to have been subjected to water-boarding at the Warsak Dam. It soon became clear that the leftists were to be physically eliminated. Afrasiab went into self-exile in Kabul and t returned in 1989. He is now a member of the Pakistan Senate and the most important leader of the ANP.
Lateef Afridi had joined Bizenjo Sahib’s PNP, after the NAP was banned. He later on joined Wali Khan’s ANP and continues to be its key leader.
Pukhtoon Students Federation, under its then chairman Muhamamd Idrees, revolted against the high-handedness of the ANP leader Begum Nasim Wali Khan circa 1989-90.
The current information minister of Pukhtunkhwa, Mian Iftikhar Hussain was the chairman of PkSF during the MRD days while another ANP MPA, Dr. Haider Ali Khan, was the president of the PkSF wing in Khyber Medical College .
During the MRD days, Shaheed Nazeer Abbasi offered the idea of reviving the Democratic Students Federation. He, however, was tortured and killed by the military regime. Kifayat Ali became the president of the DSF, which remained affiliated with the leftist group within the ANP. Kifayat was a charismatic, well-read and well-traveled man and helped the DSF to have a dynamic presence on the campuses. His brilliant leadership was reflected also in his handling of the recent lawyers’ movement.
The People Students Federation (PSF) in Pukhtunkhwa played a robust role against Zia’s regime and produced some of the finest student leaders. The late Syed Qamar Abbas, who was the son of Farikh Bokhari of the Progressive Writers Movement, was the driving force behind the PSF activities in Peshawar and surrounding districts. He was arrested and tortured at the orders of the military governor, Gen. Fazle Haq. Qamar along with his associates Azam Afridi, Syed Ayub Shah and Dr. Adnan Gul made life miserable for the junta. Qamar, Azam and Ayub were later elected to the provincial assembly from Peshawar region. Qamar Abbas was later killed in an election-related vendetta in Peshawar.
One would be remiss not to mention the late Hayat Muhammad Khan Sherpao, a founding leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party. He, too, was among those who cut their political teeth during the anti-Ayub agitation. It was most unfortunate that he was martyred by a bombing inside the Peshawar University .
Overview of Students Movement
Following partition Hindu and Sikh students who had dominated educational institutions in West Pakistan left behind a vacuum, which was filled by the immigrants.
Muslim Students Federation was formed at the NED Engineering College, Karachi in 1947. Ahmad Khan Barakzai was the first President.
Student movement in the western wing in early years was for all practical purposes, dominated by the progressive cadre of Karachi. They launched a movement for better educational facilities such as decent classrooms, libraries, laboratories and reduction in fees and provision of textbooks free or at subsidized rates and above all the right to organize.
Overall lead for the national students movement was given by DSF leaders in Karachi. The core of the leadership came from Dow Medical College, Karachi which produced such leaders as Sarwar, Haroon and and Hashmi. Sarwar was the first president of DSF. Its headquarter was in Rahman Hashmi's Room 29, Mitha Ram Hostel.
By late 1952, students took out processions, and led marches in Karachi on January 6, 7, 8/1953. National and international press gave them sympathetic coverage. Prime Minister Nazimuddin met the leaders on January 7, 1953 and accepted their demands. In the official press release, however, agreement was denied.
Enraged, students went on a rampage and finding a car with an official flag on it parked in Saddar, a posh commercial area, surrounded it. Its occupant turned out to be none other than the police minister Mushtaq Gurmani. The police panicked and attacked the students with tear gas. The minister succumbed to gas fumes and had to be carried away.
Police retaliated by opening fire on a group of students in front of the Paradise Cinema in Saddar. Twenty-six students were killed. Nainsuk Lal, a boy scout helping an injured striker, was the first fatal casualty. Several flags got soaked in blood. The city was paralyzed and life came to a halt.
Kazim, the overall leader of the movement, generously and in national spirit, announced that the Government had accepted their demands. GOP, instead of responding gratefully to Kazim’s gesture and considering student demand sympathetically, banned DSF and put student leaders in jail.
Student leaders from East and West Pakistan got together and gave a call for All Pakistan Students Convention in December 1953. Sarwar was elected the Chairman of the convening committee. Delegates from colleges all over the country participated. Mateen and Khaliquzzaman came from East Pakistan. The Punjab delegation was led by Abid Manto, then of Rawalpindi . Alia Imam represented Indian students as an observer. The Sindh delegation was led by Syed Mazhar Jamil, now a leading literary critic, art historian and attorney of Karachi . Kamil Qadri, a leftist student leader, led the Quetta delegation.
Convention dates were fixed in January 1954. The venue was Katrak Hall in Saddar. Messages of solidarity came from student bodies all over the world. Law Minister AK Brohi agreed to be the Chief Guest. He arrived at the hall only to find the place in pandemonium. His cabinet colleague Gurmani had orchestrated the disruption of the convention. The City administration had sent gangsters to subvert the proceedings. Police followed to “quell” the disorder. Both beat up the students.
Student leaders had taken the precaution of organizing a defense squad led by Adeeb Rizvi, later to distinguish himself for his work in kas idney diseases and founder of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT). Sher Afzal Malik was a sort of “Red Guard” Lieutenant Commander of the security detail. Volunteers somehow managed to control the situation for long enough to enable Brohi to conclude his address, but the rest of the proceedings had to be moved to another site.
The convention passed a resolution to form All Pakistan Students Organization (APSO), elected Sarwar as the General Secretary General. Numerous student organizations in small and large towns of all the provinces of West Pakistan decided to merge in it. Bengali delegates pledged that they would seek the approval of their groups to do the same. .
Reacting to police and gangster brutality enraged students spread all over the city. Police dare not take overt action and so bloodshed was avoided. But many students were arrested and spent months in jail. Pakistan joined Western security organizations in 1954 and by a queer coincidence (or design) APSO was also banned about the same time.
National Students Federation (NSF) had been a parallel moderate-right wing student body. Second-generation student leaders Wadood, Sibghat and others negotiated with NSF. A coalition was worked out.
Fatehyab Ali Khan, student leader of the period, joined the Mazdoor Kisan Party and rose to be its president. Another student leader was Mairaj Muhammad Khan. ZA Bhutto befriended and appointed him to his cabinet. Mairaj maintained his links with trade unions and once Bhutto had crushed the unions, he sacked Mairaj and put him in jail.
Among other pioneers were Shafi, a brilliant debater, Barkaat, a party ideologue par excellence and Saghir. Undoubtedly all these talented young men had had to play a second fiddle to and resented Sher Afzal, who was molded by Hasan Nasir, the luminary of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP). He had great organizational skills and had a devoted circle of admirers from all linguistic groups.
He was elected president of Dow Medical Students Union in 1956. The union made some radical demands. The administration would not agree. A dozen or so activists, Sher Afzal among them and including a few girls, went on hunger strike. It gathered sufficient public support to make H.S. Suharwardy, the PM at the time, to visit the college and accept all students’ demands and give Sher Afzal a drink to break his fast. Tass and other international agencies flashed the news.
Sher Afzal had a say in the upper counsels of left wing political parties led by Bhashani and Wali Khan and was welcomed by the likes of Suharawardy in their private homes. He also earned the barely concealed hostility of the entrenched leaders of the left in Karachi. After completing his tenure of office in the students union, he became the president of NSF.
Martial Law of 1958 intervened. Sher Afzal was soon to lose his patron Hasan Nasir to an extra-judicial murder in the Lahore Fort. Knives were soon out against him.
Martial Law had proscribed student’s unions and college elections. After a hiatus of two years, our military administrator, a doctor Naqi, Lt Colonel in rank, allowed elections in 1959. Our candidates won.
As the next election time approached caucuses were held to choose candidates. Hasan Rizvi was selected to contest for Presidentship and I was nominated to be his running mate as General Secretary. Rizvi won, I lost to a friend. The electoral loss was a serious setback for Sher Afzal.
Sher Afzal looking for an opportunity to retrieve lost ground, pinned his hopes on Patrice Lumumba, a firebrand left leaning nationalist PM of Belgian Congo, who had been assassinated by imperialist agents.
The NSF gave a call for a day of protest marches and meetings. We were a forlorn group of about a hundred carrying such banners as “Long Live Lumumba,” “Death to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld” and “Down with Imperialism”, and shouting similar slogans.
About the time communal riots had broken out in Jabalpur, India . There were persistent demands that we organize a protest march on the issue. The bosses sent agents provocateurs, who taunted and ridiculed Sher Afzal, and called him a lackey of the Soviet Union.
The next day the daily Dawn editorialized that our progressives felt more for the cannibals of Africa than for their brethren in faith in India. Left with no choice Sher Afzal characteristically threw himself into planning a big gathering and a march to follow.
On the appointed day students in their thousands gathered near Pakistan Chowk. Speeches were made pledging support to Indian Muslims. Police had taken up positions in the broad avenue flanking the meeting. The district magistrate (DM) announced that we had made an impressive protest, the authorities would take note and do all they could to protect our co-religionist in India . We should now disperse peacefully.
Sher Afzal agreed and gave a call to disperse. But an agent provocateur snatched the microphone and screamed that our mothers and sisters were being raped in India and we were being asked to disperse peacefully. It was obviously a signal. Flags and banners hoisted on long bamboo polls were grabbed and scores rushed at the police. They responded with tear gas and lathi (baton) charge.
About midnight there was a loud knock at my door. I opened it and found a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Sub-Inspector Shah with another two policemen wearing plain clothes. Shahji told me that DM had invited students to a meeting. I told him not to be ridiculous, and to tell me plainly that I was being arrested.
We were about fifteen detainees in a 10x10 cell. Together, our spirits were high. We sang, joked and were quite noisy. Soon after a Police Superintendent (SP) visited our cell and started hurling abuses at us. He told Sher Afzal that being a Punjabi himself and a former student of his father who was a reputed head master, he felt like a brother to him. He did not expect his brother in spirit to associate with riff raffs. Mairaj and Fatehyab protested. They were taken out and slapped right in front of us. They were again taken out of the cell early in the morning and mercilessly beaten.
About one hundred and sixty students were eventually transferred to Karachi central jail, and arrived around noon. The Jail Superintendent informed us that per jail regulations a prisoner arriving about midday doesn’t get lunch or the evening meal, so we would get breakfast the next day. We groaned audibly. The superintendent glared at us. An elderly man, who had joined us, told the superintendent not to be a damned fool. We were students, not ordinary criminals. The superintendent appeared to shrink in his uniform at the rude and public reprimand. The white haired “angel”ordered a guard to go out and get lunch, cold drinks and cigarettes for us.
From the next day food drinks and cigarettes started arriving for us . About thirty of us were herded in separate barracks, the other one hundred and thirty having been released after a few days of incarceration. We spent the time singing, telling stories, teasing each other and in political indoctrination. Many poems were written, some too rich and off color to narrate.
Eid fell during our incarceration. The day started with prayers. The jail Imam (prayer leader) had been commanded to lead the official congregation in the City as Maulana Ehtishamul Haq Thanvi, the official Moulvi, had had a dispute with the government and boycotted the main congregation. We were left with the Deputy Jail Imam. He was a “lifer convicted for murder and sentenced to a twenty-one year jail sentence. The man could not pronounce Urdu words properly much less Arabic. We could not help giggling during the prayers. During the “Dua” after the prayers we lost all sense of sanctity of the occasion and implored “God” to mete out severe punishment to our fellow prisoners.
After the prayers we proceeded to other barracks and were entertained with sweets and drinks, some spiked with Bhang (Marijuana) and raw and refined opium. One person, in for murdering his paramour in a fit of jealous rage, sticks to memory. He had a haunting voice and accompanied himself with music produced by tapping an empty earthenware pot (ghara). We also met a group of ex-Air Force officers convicted of some sort of smuggling. They, instead of idling away the hours, had started a “crime school” teaching tricks of the trade to fellow inmates. We also met an accountant, formerly a senior official in the State Bank. He had been convicted of currency fraud and had, according to his own account, stashed away millions in foreign bank accounts.
On my first day back in college I was expecting a hero’s welcome that took me by a pleasant surprise. Even my political opponents gave me admiring looks.
Karachi party bosses had, in the meanwhile, made inroads into the NSF. They sent messages to Sher Afzal that he should retire from student politics.
A meeting was held in Dow Medical College in which extravagant praise was heaped on Sher Afzal. He was humbly requested to retire. The inner party struggle continued for quite long. Sher Afzal finally decided to cut loose his ties to Karachi and returned to Peshawar where he joined the Awami National Party.
With his Punjabi/Pathan credentials, work among Karachi students, abounding enthusiasm, good mind, inexhaustible energy and patent ideological integrity, he should have gone far. He should have been catapulted into national politics, but Martial Law allowed only sycophants to rise. It was a great national loss.
This account is based on interviews with stalwarts of student’s movement of Pakistan Messrs Nooruddin Sarki, S Mazhar Jamil and Fatehyab Ali Khan advocates and Drs Muhammad Sarwar, Syed Haroon Ahmad, Muhammad Khurshid and Rasheed Hasan Khan of Karachi and Dr Hasan Raza Rizvi and Barrister Abid Hasan Manto of Lahore. The list is by no means complete.
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